By ALAN S. OSER

Published: May 10, 1987

AFTER almost two years and three revisions, the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal has published its final version of the administrative code for rent-stabilized housing in New York City. The code, which took effect May 1, governs 943,000 apartments.

Unlike the simpler, industry-written stabilization code that it replaces, the new code is an elaborately detailed statement of rules and procedures governing rental housing. It deals with building services, lease-renewal rights, eviction procedures, subletting and assignments, hardship increases, notification requirements, penalties for infractions, record keeping, security deposits and more.

It is filled with cross-references, statutory citations and lawyerly language, much of it extracted from the Omnibus Housing Act of 1983, the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 and stabilization codes in effect outside New York City.

There was an initial draft and two interim revisions, with interested parties making comments on each; the third revision has become the final version. The code enunciates substantive rules and a procedural system beyond anything stabilized housing has previously had in New York City. It remains to be seen how efficiently the agency itself can function under the provisions.

Not all the provisions are to be implemented at once. For example, a new fast-track system to handle applications for rent increases for major capital improvements is to go into effect Aug. 1. And a new state lease-renewal form is to start in use Oct. 1.

Wide interest has focused on the question of succession rights - that is, to whom the owner is obligated to offer a lease renewal. This has particular bearing in conversion situations. The state's Court of Appeals, in Sullivan v. Brevard, has ruled that only the tenant named on the lease has the right to a renewal lease. A conversion sponsor therefore did not have to offer an apartment in a conversion to a sister of the named tenant who continued to occupy an apartment after the named tenant had moved.

The new code says that renewal rights extend to all ''family members'' who occupied the apartment from the beginning of the lease or the beginning of the relationship. The latter phrase was intended to cover couples who marry after having lived together.

If the tenant named on the lease dies, the code says, any family member who has lived in the apartment as a primary resident for at least two years (or one year in the case of a person who is disabled or 62 years of age or older) is entitled to a renewal.

Succession rights are more restrictive if the named tenant vacates. The family member is entitled to a renewal lease only if he or she has lived in the apartment as a primary resident from the inception of the lease or the relationship.

In an earlier version, the code would have introduced a new term - renter - for the term ''tenant named on the lease.'' In the final version, this was dropped. A provision was added to give a named tenant the right to have his or her spouse - and only the spouse - added to the lease, as long as the spouse resides in the apartment as a primary residence.

In its definition of ''family member,'' the state has combined all the relationships previously subdivided into immediate and nonimmediate family members. Family members are spouses, children, stepchildren, parents, stepparents, siblings, nephews, nieces, grandparents, grandchildren or in-laws. Primary residence can be interrupted temporarily for specific reasons - hospitalization, schooling, military service, incarceration or other grounds the agency finds reasonable - without endangering the renewal right.

Another part of the new code deals with evictions - the right of the owner to regain possession of an apartment. Since tenants basically have the right to a lease renewal, grounds for eviction are stated as exceptions to the renewal right. Among them are nonpayment of rent, various ''wrongful acts'' and refusal to allow an owner to show an apartment to a prospective purchaser, inspector or some other person having a legitimate interest. In the latter case, the owner has to give the tenant at least five days' notice of the visit, which must be arranged at a mutually convenient time.

Procedure, in fact, is a large part of the new code. The owner who intends not to renew a lease (for any of the reasons specified in the code as legitimate) must notify the tenant 120 to 150 days before the lease expires. For nonprofit owners, the notification rule is slightly more lenient. The owner seeking eviction in preparation for demolition and redevelopment must pay all reasonable moving expenses and pay the tenant a reasonable stipend or relocate him to a ''suitable housing accommodation at the same or lower regulated rent in a closely proximate area.'' If that requires higher rent than the tenant has been paying, the owner may have to pay indefinitely the difference between the old and new rents. IN a provision considered pro-landlord, owners are permitted under the code to deny lease renewals to tenants who engage ''in a course of conduct . . . intended to harass the owner or other tenants or occupants of the same or an adjacent building or structure by interfering substantially with their comfort or safety.''